I remember on vacation with the Family around 1964 in TN near some Civil War history. I saw a poster of state flags and many flags of the south had the stars and bars on it.
In moment of childhood innocence I asked my dad why they were allowed to put that on their state flag, after all they lost and we are one USA now. He said, don’t know I guess they are proud of for some reason. I replied well I don’t see Germany or Japan’s flag today look like the one in WW2.
That is not the issue.
The Confederate flag is as much a part of the history of the entire nation as our current flag. It is from a nasty period in our history but it is an integral part.
The fact that the south chose to fly or display those flags is in all actuality the only thing left they have to be somewhat proud of.
The South was decimated, abused, torn asunder and not rehabilitated. So, in a way, flying the Reb flag for them was a mild form of protest. Did we care from 1865to 2017??
No. We ignored it like adults.
Didn’t people joke after Carter the d__ head was elected, that the “South will rise again”? I think Time magazine (or was it National Lampoon?) showed a picture of the Iwo Jima flag raising being done by a bunch of rebel soldiers in front of the White House.
The bottom line is that while Nazi Germany changed their flag(s), their national anthem to this day is Deutschland Deutschland uber alles...and Japan’s flag no longer has the Imperial sun rays but their flag is the same and they were allowed to retain Emperor Hirohito, a war criminal if there ever was one!